Not My Friend
by consultingtrickster
Summary: Set after the End of Time, The Doctor is on his way to visit Rose one last time before he regenerates, but something goes wrong. Very wrong. There's an unexpected passenger in the TARDIS, and the Doctor isn't prepared for what will happen next. Rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

There was absolutely no way that he was awake, the Doctor decided, as he stared across the TARDIS control room at the broken, bleeding, blonde and grinning man opposite him. There was no way. He must of hit his head as the TARDIS was passing through that rough patch… That was what must have happened. The rough patch in time… He needed to look into that, most certainly, but first he needed to wake up. The Doctor blinked hard a few times, then pinched his arm, the blonde man watching in amusement as the time lord tried to wake himself up. The skinny brunette hadn't changed a bit since the blonde had seen him last, even that stupid brown pinstriped suit he wore was the same. Who had told the man that the blue and brown went together? Well, they didn't. At least not in the blonde's mind. However, most things didn't seem to agree with popular opinion in his mind, and that was just the way he liked it. Waiting, however, was one thing he didn't like.

"What, DOCTOR?" he shouted the timelord's name to call his attention back from trying to wake himself. "Aren't you happy to see me?!" he laughed, striding over to the taller man, reaching out and patting his cheek. "Perk up now, I didn't tear a hole in time and space to come here and talk to myself!" his voice showed only a little of the pain he was feeling, and none of the immense happiness. As much as he would joke, and tease and technically attempt to bring about the other's demise, he was happy to see him.

"M..Master…" The Doctor managed to choke out the word, then swallowed hard before seeming to come back to himself, looking down at the man and squinting a little. "How did you even get here?" he tilted his head as he spoke, the emphasis on the words 'you' and 'here', as his face contorted in a confused, albeit not angry frown. If the Master was able to escape the time lock… Then the others would follow. "If you are here, to warn me that you've let them all go-"

"Oh don't worry Doctor, I don't want them around either, remember? No… How I got out.." he winced a little, holding up a hand to shush the other timelord's speech as he caught a hold of himself, brushing off the pain. "How I got out is going to be my little secret." he laughed, then grabbed his ribs, grimacing in pain. "Mm… Though I don't recommend trying it yourself, Doctor… It's a bit painful…" he took deep breaths, then laughed. "I so didn't want to regenerate anytime soon… I quite like this body you see…. Young, and strong and quite… ngh… Sexy, too…" The Master's words were slightly strained, and as he started to lurch to the side, the Doctor reached out as if on instinct, keeping him steady with both hands.

"You listen to me, Master.. I am going to help you… But if you have another plan to take over the Earth, I will stop you, understood? Too many people have died because of you." The taller man leaned in close to the blonde's face as he spoke, watching his eyes to make sure he took in every detail of the message he was conveying. He himself had been regenerating… Changing… And very soon too… He had wanted to spend his time making one last round of visits… He had been on his way to see Rose when he'd hit the rough patch, but now… He couldn't feel it anymore. It was like the process had just… Paused. He blinked, then refocused his eyes on the Master. Now was not the time to be figuring that out. Right now, he had to help the Master…

"Yes… I understand, Doctor…" The Master rolled his eyes, and shook his head. "You and your precious Earth… I can honestly say, that I have no… 'Big plan' as it were… I just really… Really wanted to get out of there…Can you not understand that? Wouldn't you want to leave?" the blond narrowed his eyes at the doctor, then sneered, "Of course you wouldn't have gotten yourself stuck there, would you? No.. Perfect Doctor never messes anything up, does he?"

The Doctor shook his head, then gave a sad smile. "I have messed up plenty, Master, but I always move on.. Build from it, learn from it… Can you not do the same? Besides, how long were you even there? A couple hours at the most…" he frowned, trying to think how long it had been. His sense of time always felt a little weird when he was regenerating… But right now, he really couldn't tell. He couldn't even tell you how long he'd been holding onto the Master's arms.

"I was there for ten years, Doctor… like I said… Broke a hole in time and space to be here…" he grinned like the Cheshire cat as he watched the light go on in the Doctor's mind. "Ah… You understand now.. The rough patch in time… Yes… I admit, it was me!" he yelled the last words, grinning and laughing, before gesturing around him. "All this? This is stuck, Doctor… It's not going… Anywhere, and neither are you. I'm not going anywhere either… It's nice… We're fixed points in time…. Well, to a point, anyway… Mostly fixed. It's kind of like we're fixed, but just with reaaallllllyyyyy strong glue… You can get out, it's just nearly… Mm… Impossible." he grabbed his side with his hand, then grimaced at the Doctor. "You said something about being able to help me?"

"Oh! Right.. Sorry…" The Doctor gave a small smile, then nodded. "Yes… I have somewhere you can sit down… Over here…" he led him to the seats, helping him sit, then pulled out his stethoscope, putting on his 'Brainy Specs'. "Take off your shirt, Master… I need to examine your chest… It seems to be where the most damage is, yes?" he raised a brow as he asked, looking down at the other man, who was just sitting there, staring at him. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"Besides those ridiculous glasses you mean?" the timelord laughed, then grimaced a little at the pain that came with the movement of his chest. "You didn't say please, Doctor… Very rude of you…" he chuckled breathlessly after he spoke, then looked back up at the tall, skinny man, and shook his head. "You need to be polite Doctor… Gets you a lot further in life…"

"Right… Right of course…" the doctor nodded, "although… You never seem to be too polite when you're trying to kill me, and or enslave the earth, so I could just tell you to take your shirt of or I won't help you… But I'm nice." the skinny man chuckled, then tossed his sonic screwdriver in his palm, giving the Master a quick scan before pocketing it. "I need to have a closer look Master… Now, please… Take off your shirt."

"There we go… The magic word." the blonde smiled, then took a deep breath, his hands moving slowly as he grabbed the edges of his black hoodie, pulling the slightly torn garment up and off his body, over his head and tossing it in the corner, gasping at the pain as he moved his torso. "Mm… Damn it…" he muttered, noticing that his red t-shirt hadn't come off with the sweater as he'd hoped, and was still clinging to his bleeding, painful body.

Before the Master could do anything about the t-shirt, the Doctor's hands had taken a gentle hold of the hem of the shirt, tugging it slowly off and over his head, gently easing his arms through the sleeves as he did. The timelord's hands were cool against the Master's skin, and he smiled softly, closing his eyes and letting himself enjoy the soft touches. The Doctor carefully felt the other's torso, inspecting the tears in his muscles, and checking for broken bones, then listened to his hearts with the stethoscope. "Good news, Master… It doesn't seem like there's any internal damage… to your organs or your hearts… though they are beating at an odd pace… Bad news though, if we don't get these other wounds healed, you are going to have to regenerate…" he rubbed his face, then crossed his one arm across his chest, holding the opposite elbow and tapping his forefinger on his lips. "You're not going to do it yourself, are you, Master? You know… Sometimes I think you want to die.."

"No… Why would I want that Doctor? I mean.. It's not like my planet is gone, no… And it's not like we're the only ones left either, no… There are still the ones in the time lock still.. So tell me… Why would I want to die?" The blonde grinned, then gestured to his body. "I'm locked, Doctor… In this state of dying. My body can't move on to fix me… Can't even start up the regeneration process… I need a Doctor…" he looked back up into the other timelord's eyes, the question burning in them. "Can you… Fix me…?"


	2. Chapter 2

It seemed like an eternity had passed, the Doctor's mind reeling with possible remedies, ways to 'fix' the Master… They were in what seemed like a time lock… he was frozen in the point of regeneration he'd been in when he had run into the Master, and the other timelord was frozen in his point of pain. Ten looked down into his eyes, and saw the utter agony the other man was holding back, and saw how desperate he was, that he was coming to him for help and slowly nodded. "I think I can…" he whispered, then cleared his throat. "I need to make sure I'm right though… If I'm wrong this could end up killing you… For good."

The blonde timelord laughed, shaking his head. "Right…Well… If you could do something about the pain until then… That would be bloody great…" he laughed, then gasped in pain, holding his sides. "And sooner, Doctor, would be better than later…" he shivered, rubbing his hands over his bare skin. "I don't want to catch cold in your bloody drafty ship…"

"Hey! The TARDIS is not drafty… You're just half naked!" The Doctor rolled his eyes, then went to help him back into his clothes. "Actually… No… wait right there…" he ran off to his wardrobe, looking through it until he found what he was looking for. He brought back the new t-shirt and jumper, which looked precisely like the ratty ones he'd taken away. "Much better!" Ten grinned, helping the Master redress in the clean clothing. "Better?"

"If you call being in excruciating pain, but warm, better, then yes, by all means Doctor, I'm all better and we should go have a bloody tea party in space!" The Master snarled, then huffed, curling into himself a little. "Just get on with fixing me… Now…" he looked aside, not watching as the other timelord tried out the TARDIS controls, trying to see if he could get them out of the temporal rift.

Temporal Rift. Well that sounded about right anyway. The taller timelord glanced over at his… Was he his friend? No.. Not really. Wasn't family either… No matter what Martha had suspected when they'd first run into him together… He chuckled softly at the memory, then sighed sadly. He'd figure the Master out someday… But today was not that day.

"Master… Get up.. And go lay down… Try and get some rest in one of the beds, alright? Your body might relax, be less painful then.. I have some research to do…" The Doctor watched as the blonde got up, wincing dramatically and walking out of the room, walking away and down the corridor to one of the bedrooms. He looked back to the TARDIS screens, frowning as he adjusted the information the sonic screwdriver had taken from The Master.

He would be able to use it to figure out how to make the Master better if it weren't for one thing. The Master was fine. He wasn't injured. He should have been, by all counts, from the look of his torn and bloody clothing, but none of the blood was his own. The worst injuries the other timelord had sustained, were slight muscle tears and bruises, nothing as debilitating as what he was going on about. The pain was in his head.

"Then whose blood…" The Doctor looked at the jumper that he'd laid over the railing and frowned. It was Timelord blood, that he knew. So what had the Master done now? He rubbed his hands over his face slowly, looking up at the inside of his ship. He couldn't just let him go… He had to find out… Ten glanced at his hand, watching as the glow of regeneration pulsed over it, and frowned. It kept doing that… Perhaps.. If he could find out what was broken inside the Master… He could use his regeneration energy and fix it….

"Master… I have an idea…" The Doctor announced as he walked into the bedroom. He glanced over at where the other was sprawled on the bed and sighed. "But I can't tell you." he made the statement firmly, then crossed his arms. "I want you to tell me what happened to you in the time lock, Master… And then I will help you." he sat on the edge of the bed, waiting patiently.

"You want to hear what happened Doctor?" The Master chuckled, sitting up a little and shaking his head. "You don't want to know.. You'd really not want to help me, I think, because honestly? You might not believe it. I know I wouldn't…" he chuckled, then lay back again. "Doctor, just help. That's all you're good at… So just do it."

Ten frowned, then lay down beside him, thinking nothing of it as he turned on his side to face the blonde at his eye level. "Master, I want to know. Please, tell me. I can't help you unless I know what is wrong with you… So please, just let me know what you did, and I can help…"

The Master turned and smiled at him, shaking his head. "Fine. But you asked for it…" he turned again, laying on his back and closing his eyes. "The sound of drums, is gone, you know. It's so… Quiet, in my head… It's terrifying, really. I told you before, that I didn't know who I'd be without them… And I honestly can say I don't feel the same." he sighed. "That's not it though. When I was trapped in there… I was attacked by the survivors.. All of them wanted me dead.. But somehow I survived.. I fought back." he swallowed hard, shuddering.

"Doctor, I have murdered so many… I have slaughtered your precious humans in droves, but this… I tore them apart… With my bare hands. I destroyed them and I ripped out their hearts… I worked so very hard until they were all completely obliterated… The last one was begging, pleading with me to spare him… But I didn't. I couldn't. I needed to kill them all… Because that was the only way out of there-" the Master seemed like he was going to say something but changed his mind, shaking his head. "I needed to kill them all. Otherwise they would have killed me." he looked at the Doctor, smiling again. "See? You and I… We really are the last two now… None of them Doctor, none of them survived… Now will you still save me? Or have I changed your pretentious, hypocritical mind?"

"I will…" he nodded, then gently placed his hand on the side of the Master's face, leaning in close. He pressed his forehead to the other's, trying to get into his mind a little, pushing the regeneration energy from his hand into the other's head. He felt the energy flowing into the Master, hearing his soft gasp as the golden mist healed him, repairing the damaged connections in his brain and ridding him of the pain that had been tormenting him.

"D..Doctor… What did you… Do?" the Master asked quietly, looking at Ten as he lay beside him, smiling crookedly. "Did you just… Your regeneration energy?" The Doctor nodded and the Master huffed, shaking his head. "You idiot! What are you going to use now? Hmm?"

"Oi.. Just helped you… And I'm frozen remember? I'll still have my energy when I get out of this rift… And I'll resume regenerating right where I left off…" he looked rather sad as he said that, looking aside. The thought of leaving… "I know I'll still be me.. But I don't.. I don't want to go. I liked this regeneration… I really did." he gave a little chuckle. "And as soon as I get out of here… Well I'll be a whole new man…" he shook his head again, then looked back at the Master.

"And I don't have to.. Thanks to you." The blonde murmured, bringing his hand up to gently cup the other's cheek. "Doctor… Are you really so bloody weak as to be crying over regenerating? I mean… What's this?" he wiped a tear from the other's eye, scoffing. "That's… That's ridiculous… Stop that.." another tear fell, then another, the Doctor giving a small apologetic smile.

"I said… Stop that!" The Master snarled, then yanked the other Timelord's face forward, kissing him hard and running his fingers through his hair. "Mm.. I said.." he mumbled against the shocked man's mouth, smirking and deepening the forceful kiss. "Stop."


End file.
